Vol. 71/No. 43 November 19, 2007
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N. Carolina farm workers rally over conditions |
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Militant/Greg Preston
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WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina-Some 150 tobacco workers and their supporters rallied here October 28 to demand that tobacco giant R. J. Reynolds meet with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee to discuss conditions in the fields. FLOC is fighting for improvements for tobacco workers not covered by agreements reached with the North Carolina Growers Association in March.
Workers face conditions of virtual indentured servitude, subminimum wages, labor camps with miserable conditions, heat stroke deaths, and illnesses from chemicals. The tobacco workers, most of them from Mexico, come to North Carolina under “guest worker” permits for part of the year. The march and rally drew United Mine Workers of America retirees from Virginia and West Virginia, a group of Seafarers International Union members from Maryland, and representatives of other unions. —SUSAN LAMONT Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home |